A small fly the size of a grain of rice could be the Top Gun of the fly world, with a remarkable ability to detect and intercept its prey mid-air, changing direction mid-flight if necessary before sweeping round for the kill.
A small fly the size of a grain of rice could be the Top Gun of the fly world, with a remarkable ability to detect and intercept its prey mid-air, changing direction mid-flight if necessary before sweeping round for the kill.
̽»¨Ö±²¥robber fly Holcocephala is a relatively small fly – at 6mm in length, it is similar in size of the average mosquito. Yet it has the ability to spot and catch prey more than half a metre away in less than half a second – by comparison to its size, this would be the equivalent of a human spotting its prey at the other end of a football pitch. Even if the prey changes direction, the predator is able to adapt mid-air and still catch its prey.
An international team led by researchers from the ̽»¨Ö±²¥ of Cambridge was able to capture this activity by tricking the fly into launching itself at a fake prey – in fact, just a small bead on a fishing line. This enabled the team to witness the fly’s remarkable aerial attack strategy. Their findings are published today in the journal Current Biology.
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See the world through the eyes of a robber fly in the Plant and Life Sciences Marquee at the Cambridge Science Festival, Saturday 18 March 2017.
Reference
Wardill, TJ et al. A novel interception strategy in a miniature robber fly with extreme visual acuity; Current Biology; 9 March 2017; DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.01.050
̽»¨Ö±²¥text in this work is licensed under a . For image use please see separate credits above.
